'The Uncommon Quilter' takes seven years for quilt-a-week challenge

Artist Jeanne Williamson has chosen fabric as her medium ... as well as plastic construction fencing and cupcake liners and dryer lint and an endless variety of recycled and unconventional materials.

Kristine Diederich

Artist Jeanne Williamson has chosen fabric as her medium ... as well as plastic construction fencing and cupcake liners and dryer lint and an endless variety of recycled and unconventional materials.

Williamson uses all kinds of unusual materials to make art quilts, and in 1999 she embarked on a personal challenge to make one quilt per week. By the end of seven years, she'd made 365 quilts 8-by-10 inches or smaller.

Williamson is now sharing her quilting journey and unique creations in a new book titled "The Uncommon Quilter: Small Art Quilts Created with Paper, Plastic, Fiber, and Surface Design."

Williamson has always approached her quilts as art projects and a medium for creative expression. But there were some bumps in the road.

Before starting the quilt-a-week challenge, "I wasn't very happy with my artwork," said the Natick resident. "I was struggling, not getting in a lot of creative time." Then she visited an artist friend and shared her frustration. Her friend sympathized and then showed Williamson her own remedy - she dumped a whole bag of small pieces of art out on the table. Williamson realized art didn't have to be large in size to be worthwhile, and the process of just making something was progress unto itself.

Thinking of working in a smaller scale gave rise to a new potential challenge for the artist.

"If I did something more often ... could I do something every week?" she asked herself in late 1998. Her challenge to make a quilt a week was on its way. "I decided on the first week of '99, and I started."

"In the beginning, it was just fabric," said Williamson. "I think the recycled materials came in the second year." She experimented with things she had around the house or saw on her journeys - onion bags, sushi grass, postcards and rug padding are just a few of the many materials she has used in her quilts. All of the quilts have fabric, batting and stitching as well.

"Neighbors and friends and family members would save things" for her, she said. The use of these somewhat unconventional materials still inspires Williamson today.

In "The Uncommon Quilter," Williamson uses 52 of her creations from that seven-year period to inspire readers. Each quilt is shown in a full-page photo detail and a smaller photo of the entire piece along with her personal notes. A comprehensive materials list spells out all of the items needed, and step-by-step instructions guide readers to create their own version of Williamson's work.

The book is divided into four chapters - Plastic, Paper, Surface Design and Fiber - exploring those materials with at least a dozen varied projects. Each quilt has an appealing or descriptive name such as "Accidentally on Purpose," "Sunny-Side Up," "Mailing Seal Leftovers" and "Funky Yarn, Sheer Fabric."

"If (readers) want to make any of the quilts in the book, that's great but if people (start working and) say, 'Oh, I want to take it somewhere else,' I'm happy with that.

"I'm hoping people will write me" to tell of their journey making her quilt designs, she said. "Art quilting is not supposed to be about the right or the wrong. It's about the process.

"I'm hoping (the book) will inspire people who don't sew, people who want to try something and to look at different objects and materials (in a new way).

"There was a kindergarten teacher looking at it and she thought it was full of ideas (for her students). The quilts don't have to be sewn, they can be glued," she said.

She has moved on from the weekly quilts and their small-scale format, and is now creating 12-inch square quilts, giving herself one month for each piece.

"I'm thinking of these more as a real piece of art," said Williamson. "I'm more focused, slower, but doing something on a regular basis."

Williamson also creates larger quilts - "my main love is doing the big pieces" - and is fascinated with using unconventional and recycled materials there as well. She is particularly enamored of construction fence, a heavy-duty plastic material with regular shapes cut out - yes, this is the same orange-colored barrier that encircles construction sites. She lays the plastic on a flat surface with her fabric on top and uses a roller and paint to impress the regular pattern of the construction fence onto her fabric.

The resulting quilts give an impression of the regularity of windows and shapes of a building, with areas augmented by paint to interpret the changes in color and light.

Williamson is inspired by her surroundings. "I've been following the development at the Natick Mall," she said, and has taken dozens of pictures of the construction site. "Also the condo development at the Clover Leaf Mall."

And writing "The Uncommon Quilter" was also a part of the artistic process. Thinking back on her seven years of making one quilt per week gave Williamson time for reflection.

"I feel like I got more playful in my artwork and less afraid of making a mistake. Some of them are not so great but it doesn't matter. (Those seven years were) my equivalent of a master's degree. I grew as an artist."

"The Uncommon Quilter: Small Art Quilts Created with Paper, Plastic, Fiber, and Surface Design" by Jeanne Williamson (The Crown Publishing Group/Random House Inc., 160 pages, $25) is available at many online booksellers and local bookstores.

On Tuesday, Dec. 4, at 7:30 p.m., Williamson will be at Morse Institute Library, Natick, to discuss and sign copies of her book.

For more information about the artist, visit www.jeannewilliamson.com.